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v T. M. WILKINS & A. H. REED. BLECTRIG CALL AND. VOTING APPARATUS-No'.429 .330. w "Pa ent dJune s. 1890.

I LI I? umwto'i q'vwueooeo I I j UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

TURNEY M. WILKINS, OF MILLER, SOUTH DAKOTA, AND AXEL. H. REED, OFGLENCOE, MINNESOTA.

ELECTRIC CALL AND VOTING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 429,330, dated June 3,1890. Application filed January 16, 1890. Serial No. 337,111. (Nomodel.)

ITO all whom it may concern: Figure I is a plan view of the House ofRep- Be it known that we, TURNEY M. WILKINs resentatives of the UnitedStates Capitol, and AXEL. II. REED, citizens of the United showing,also,in plan two of our annunciators, States, residing, respectively, atMiller, in the which would probably be located in service 55 county ofHand, and State of South Dakota, in a vertical position. Fig. II is aplan view,

and Glencoe, in the county of McLeod and and Fig. III is a verticaltransverse section, of. State of Minnesota, have invented certain newthe button-box on the line 00 of Fig. II. Fig. and useful Improvementsin Electric Call and IV is a plan, partly in section, on the line yVoting Systems; and we do hereby declare the of Fig. V; and Fig. V is avertical section of 60 following to be a full, clear, and exact descripaportion of the floor, the footof a desk-leg, and tion of the invention,such as will enable othadjacent parts on the line .2 of Fig. IV. I Fig.ers skilled in the art to which it appertains VI is a face viewrepresenting both faces of to make and use the same. our annunciatorboard, and Fig. VII is an This invention relates to electric call andend view of three annunciator-cards. 65 voting systems; and its objectis, in general, No. 10 represents a desk to be occupied by first, toprovide means whereby the members one member, located, as usual, uponthe floor of legislative assemblies and other similar of theasselnblydiall. bodies may individually and silently call a 11 is abutton for calling a page or other page or other attendant for anypurpose reattendant; 12, a button for voting yes, and 70 2o quired;second, to provide means whereby 13 a button for voting no.

each member of an assembly may silently an- 14: is a box surrounding thebuttons to prenounce to the speaker, to the clerk, and to the vent theirbeing accidentally pressed down, whole house his vote on any questionput by and 15 a hinged lid therefor provided with a the speaker; and toattain these ends in a lock 16, whereby the whole may be securely 75 2 5practicable and satisfactory manner the obclosed at pleasure. This boxis secured to the ject more in detail is,third, to provide means desk byscrews 30, which are locked inside,

whereby any page or other attendant located so that it cannot be takenoff maliciously. in the attendants room may see at a glance 17represents wires passing from the butboth the location in theassembly-room and tons down the leg of the desk to commu- 8o the name ofthe member making a call, so nicate with other wires 18, which may passthat a new attendant may reply quickly and along the floor 26 in groovesor under the correctly; fourth, to provide means for removfloor and upthrough it again to'communicate ing and replacing the desks of anassemblywith the annunciators 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23. room withoutdamage to the electric commu- The ends of the wires 18 are below thesur- 8 5 5 nicators and yet without any special effort face of thefloor, so as not to interfere with being made to disconnect andreconnect. such its use for other purposes in the absence ofcommunicators; fifth, to provide security the desks and so as not to bedamaged by against misuseof any members call-buttons such use. The wires17 are each provided in his absence; sixth, to provide means wherewith aspring end 24-, adapted to project 90 40 by the whole surface of anannunciator-board enough below the leg 25 to reach the said ends may beutilized for exposing to view both of the wires 18, and their springsare of sufiisides at once of name-cards, and of concealcient force tocrowd away dust and insure ing both sides at once of all the cards, andelectrical contact, the spring ends 2%, Figs. I of exposing any one ormore cards at a time and V, being located so as to register with the 5 5independently of the rest; and to this end ends of wires 18 when thedeskis properly 10- our invention consists in the construction cated onthe floor, which is insured by means and combination of parts forming anelectric of dowels 27, projecting from the desk-legs to call and votingsystennhereinafter described, register with and engage holes in thefloor. and particularly pointed out in the claims, These dowels alsoprevent the weight of the 10c reference being had to the accompanyingdesk resting on the projecting springs 2% when drawings, in whichthedowels are out of their holes.

19 represents an annuneiator, which is preferably located against thewall behind the speaker and above his head. This wall being the front ofthe eorrespondents gallery, the annuneiator is inclined forward for thedouble purpose of squaring its front to the line of vision of theassembly below and its back to the line of vision of the reporters aboveit.

28 represents the individual cards of the annuneiator, each centrallypivoted at its ends and adapted to be turned one-quarter of a revolutionon said pivots, whereby its front and rear faces will be exposed when itis in a vertical plane, or at the general slant of the communicator, andwhereby its faces will be turned from view when in a horizontal plane,the card being a mere sheet of iron or other material and presentingonly its edge to view when in a normal or resting position and providedwith a weighted lever 28 to hold it in that position. The lever 28 is anarmature, and 32 represents magnets connected with the wires 18, andwhen a member presses a button it closes a circuit with the wire 18 andvitalizes the said magnet, causing it to attract the armature 2S and tohold the weight elevated and the annunciatoncard exposed to view untilthe magnets 32 are cut out of elec tric connection, when the weightswill fall and restore the cards to a concealed position. On each face ofa card the name of a member is printed in letters large enough to beread from any part of the assembly-room. A separate card is devoted toeach members name, and these will be alphabetically arranged, as usual,at the opening of each Congress.

The annunciators are arranged in pairs, one pair 19 facing the front,another pair 520 to the right, and another pair 21 facing to the left,so that they may be readily seen by all the members at their desks. ()neannuneiator of each pair has marked in very large letters above it Yesand the other No, and every members name is on a similarlyloeated cardin each annuneiator. The card of the yes annuneiator is connected by thewires 18 and 17 with the Yes button of that membcrs desk and the card ofthe no annuneiator with the No button. Vhen a vote is called for by theSpeaker, the votes of the whole assemby might be exhibited within onesecond to every member of the House. Each members device being aduplicate of every others and yet entirely independent thereof, all mayvote at once without confusion, or each may vote when he pleases.

22 represents a smaller annu nciator, located in front of the clerk andhaving all the connections before described for his especial eonvenicncein keeping the record and an nouncing the result of each vote.

The annuneiator 23 may be located in an anteroom or other suitableportion of the house to be occupied by the waiting pages and attendants,as it is no longer necessary that they should be in sight of themembers, and their noise and confusion on the floor will thereby beavoided. This annuneiator is provided with cards similar to those beforedescribed; but the cards are preferably located 011 a plan correspondingto the plan of the desks 011 the floor of the house, the integrity ofeach aisle being maintained on the annunciator, as in the house, toserve as an instant guide to the location of any member making a call.The card bearingeach members name 011 this annuneiator is connected byan electric wire 18 17 with the button marked Page 011 that membersdesk, so that the name of the caller and his location are both known ata single glance as well by the green hand as by the experienced ones,and all the confusion of hand -clapping, shouting, and hunting for thecaller will be avoided. This annuneiator must be provided with a concealing-lever for each card independently of the others, so that when apage starts to answer a call he or the chief page in charge may turndown that callcard. Some of the advantages of this system are asfollows: 13y it, first, a page or attendant may be instantly andsilently called; second, the page may see at a glance both the name andlocation of the caller; third, the votes of the whole assembly may beinstantaneously cast and the detailed result of every vote exposed infull view of the assembly and its officers, or each member may vote whenhe pleases; fourth, time is saved in doing the business of the assembly.

Having thus fully described our invention, what we believe to be new,and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is the following:

1. The combination, in electric voting-machines, of two annunciators,one marked No and the other marked Yes, each having a series of cardsmarked with the names of members or the numbers of their desks, buttonsmarked Yes and No upon each desk, an electric wire for each annuneiator,extending to the foot of the desk-leg, an electric wire extending fromeach button upon the desk down the said leg and having a projectingspring end, the leg being provided with a dowel to engage a hole in thefloor, and the yes and no wires of the annunciators located in the floorin the same relation to the said dowelholes that the springs of the yesand no wires of the buttons are to the dowel, substantially as shown anddescribed, whereby the two or more wires of each line will be properlyunited by the act of placing the desk properly on the floor.

2. The combination of the described yes and no annunciators, the yes andno buttons, electric wires connecting them respectively, and passingdown a desk-leg having a projectin dowel and separable at the foot ofthe leg, and that portion of each wire upon the leg having a spring endadapted to engage its mate and extending for that purpose below the leg,the said extension being less than the lengths of the dowel, whereby itis protected from injury, substantially as card on the anuunciator,substantially as shown and described. shown and described, whereby thepage may The combination of a series of desks 10- see at a glancethelocation of the calling-incin- I 5 cated in a fixed plan upon a floorand leaving bers desk in the house by the location of theaislesbetweenthem,electric call-buttons upon card on the annunciator.

each desk, an annunciator suitably located In testiinonywhereof We'afiiXour signatures and having turn-cards located upon it on the in presenceof two Witnesses.v

fixed plan relative to each other correspond- TURNEY M. WILKINS. ingwith the location of the said desks and AXEL. H. REED. to having spacesbetween them corresponding \Vitnesses:

with the said aisles, and electric communica- E. M. DAWSON, tion betweeneach. desk and its corresponding V. X. STEVENS.

